University of Pavia University Museum System

The University Museum System of Pavia was established in 2005 to bring the University Museums together in a unifying structure that would oversee the preservation of the histori- cal scientific heritage, its conservation, its development and its promotion in the area. Recognized by the Lombardy Region, the Sy- stem consists of several museums, among University History Museum them the most relevant for the social and medical sciences are the University History Museum, the Natural History Museum and the Golgi Museum. There are also important collections linked to the scientific research and teaching at the : for example the Electrical Technologies, Mineralogy, Physics, mathe- matics and Archeology. The University hosts a beautiful Botanical garden founded by G.A. Golgi’s Labouratory Scopoli.

AMEE 2014 Excellence in Education The 21st Century Teacher Natural History Museum Milan,

30 august - 3 september 2014

Pavia University Museum System Strada Nuova, 65 27100 Pavia Italy Pavia University Museum System tel. +39 0382 984709 | 4707 http://musei.unipv.it

University History Museum Natural History Museum Golgi Museum

The foundation of the Histori- The Museum of Natural History has a histori- The Palazzo Botta hides an unexpected rich- cal Museum dates back to cal uniqueness and preserves scientific collec- ness, still little known and appreciated. It is the the 1930s. It was a hetero- tions of highest value. It is one of the first former Institute Golgi, now Camillo Golgi Mu- seum, which preserves almost intact the traces Diploma geneous structure composed museums of natural history arose in Europe, of two main collections: Me- and can be counted for important unique of a recent past in which a Nobel winner for dicine and Physics. finds. Throughout its history our museum has Medicine made his findings and gave birth to a The collections of the museum have an original seen at work famous scientific directors, con- School, that took his name, and prepared other great scientists. Tools, preparations, original XVIII century nucleus and are linked to the work servators and scholars, by slides, placed in nineteenth original lockers in of scientists- like Alessandro Volta, Antonio and to Leopoldo addition to an archive and a library of priceless Scarpa and Lazzaro Spallanzani - called in Pa- Maggi, Pietro Pavesi and Torquato Taramelli. via by the enlightened policy of the Habsburg. historical value constitute the heritage of the The section of medicine, articulated into 3 Among the oldest in Italy, founded in 1771, museum. the museum maintains a natural heritage of rooms, hosts instruments and specimens refer- The collection is particularly linked to the work red to the anatomical school of A. Scarpa high scientific and historical value comprising of Camillo Golgi, Nobel prize in 1906. Under his (1752-1832), to the progresses in surgery and nearly 400 thousand exhibits divided between leadership and thanks to the work of his colla- clinical activities through the XIX and XX centu- the collections of zoology, comparative anato- borators and of the researchers who came after ries, owing to personalities like L. Porta (1800- my and paleontology. him, the Institute of General Pathology became 1875) and C. Forlanini (1847-1918), and to the The scientific value is due to the presence of ani- a prominent scientific centre, internationally scientific school established by C. Golgi (1843- mal specimens belonging to appreciated in the last decades of the Nine- 1926), the first Italian to be given a Nobel prize species now rare or endan- teenth and early Twentieth century. in medicine for the invention of a histological gered as a pair of Barbary procedure that laid the foundation of modern lions (Panthera leo leo), or neurosciences. The Cabinet of Physics of A. Cacapo (Strigops habropti- Volta (1745-1827) has been recreated in the lus), nocturnal parrot of section of physics. The Cabinet grew under A. New Zealand and the monk seal (Monachus mona- Volta, since 1778, with the newest instruments for teaching and research, and became very Barbary Lion chus). The collections date back to a period between the famous between Italian and foreign visitors. A Golgi’s histological slide second room contains the instruments used by late eighteenth and early twentieth century, with some collections acquired in recent years. The the successors of Volta during XIX century.

exhibits are the result of acquisitions, exchanges,

travel professors, as well as gifts for kings and

emperors.

University Main Building Palazzo Botta Palazzo Botta Strada Nuova, 65—27100 Pavia Piazza Botta 9—27100 Pavia Piazza Botta 11—27100 Pavia http://musei.unipv.it/msu http://musei.unipv.it/storianat http://musei.unipv.it